DARMON, AMRAM

DARMON, AMRAM (1815–1878), French soldier. Darmon was born in Algiers and was a scion of the distinguished darmon family . He enthusiastically welcomed the French conquest of Algeria in 1830, and in 1834 joined the French army, enrolling in the spahis, and participated in all the subsequent campaigns. As a result of his knowledge of Arabic and French and of the country as a whole, he was appointed interpreter, serving in this capacity in the various campaigns, and in 1852 was given the official appointment of Interpreter, First Class. In December of that year he was named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. From 1853 to 1868 he was head of the Arab Bureau in Mascara, where he died. Darmon took advantage of the decree of 1866 granting Algerian Jews the right of individual naturalization, four years before the Crémieux decree of 1870 which granted them automatic French citizenship.